


Sorry

by AutisticWriter



Category: Harry & Paul (TV)
Genre: Apologies, Coming Out, Crying, Episode Related, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gay Male Character, Hugs, M/M, One Shot, Post-Canon, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 01:59:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8268458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: Darren decides to apologise to the woman he was so rude to earlier.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place not long after the sketch in s2e5.

Sophie had just finished her usual walk into town (only punctuated with some lovely sexism from a pair of builders), when she heard someone shouting a long way behind her.

“Madam! Madam, please wait!”

She turned around and saw a man running along the high street towards her, waving his arms frantically. Sophie glanced around, and saw that she was the only woman nearby, so he must have been talking to her.

“Madam, please!”

His voice was incredibly posh and a little camp, but, as he got closer, she saw he was wearing dirty, paint stained jeans and a too big jumper. And then, with a feeling of dread, she realised who he was: he was one of the builders who had yelled abuse at her earlier. Except he seemed to have lost his chavvy voice, which didn’t make sense.

“Please wait, I need to talk to you!” He yelled, rushing across the road without looking.

He skidded to a halt in front of her, and smiled nervously, pressing a hand against his side.

“What do you want?” Sophie muttered, not in the mood for this shit.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” He gasped, clearly out of breath.

“You’re not going to go on about my tits again, are you?” She asked.

He looked threatened by her angry face, and took a couple of steps backwards.

“No, I just wanted to apologise,” he said.

“What?” Sophie said, wondering what was going on.

“I wanted to apologise for my disgusting behaviour earlier. Your reaction made me realise how offensive I had been, and it made me cry.”

Now Sophie looked, she saw how red his eyes were. As she stared, she saw his eyes were not only red, but also rather wet. What the hell?

“What?” She asked. “I don’t—”

“Darren?!”

Sophie heard another very posh voice yelling from somewhere down the road. She and the man turned to see the other builder hurtling down the pavement in their general direction.

“Darren! Come back, you silly wanker!” He yelled, keeping his posh voice as he swore. “Were’ve you gone?”

This man spotted Sophie and the man who must have been Darren, and rushed towards them. He must have recognised Sophie, because his eyes widened, and he looked embarrassed.

“What are you doing, Darren?” He asked between heavy gasps for air. “You just disappeared.” Then he looked at Darren properly, and saw his damp eyes. “Are you upset again?”

“A bit,” Darren muttered.

The man sighed. “What’ve you been doing?”

“Apologising to this lady,” Darren said, gesturing towards Sophie.

“Ah,” the man said, staring at Sophie, “yes, well, I need to apologise too. Our behaviour was truly unacceptable.”

“I was only trying to be friendly,” Darren said softly, and Sophie saw tears in his eyes. His lip wobbled, and he let out a spluttering sob.

“Come here,” the other man said, and he pulled Darren into a hug, patting his back.

Sophie stared at the two hugging men, unsure of what to say or do. This was so bloody weird.

“Um, are you...?” She said, totally confused. “I don’t... Um... What do you mean, ‘I was only trying to be friendly’?”

Darren’s friend looked at her. “We only heckle women because that’s what scaffolders do.”

“I never knew I was being a bastard until you told me, madam,” Darren said, pulling away from his friend and wiping his eyes on his sleeves. “And now I feel awful.”

“And you’re really sorry?” Sophie asked, still not sure whether to believe them.

He nodded, his lip still wobbling pathetically. “We are, aren’t we, Kev?”

The man called Kevin nodded. “Truly.”

“The thing is,” Sophie said, looking between the pair of them, “how am I to know you really mean it?”

“In the time between you went past and Darren ran off to find you, two women walked past our building. We didn’t heckle either of them, did we, Darren?” Kevin said.

Darren shook his head. “No, we did not. If you still don’t believe us, madam, I too have something else to say that should help our case.”

Sophie titled her head to side, intrigued. “Go on.”

“Well, as I was saying,” Darren said, looking nervous, “we only heckled women because that’s what all the other chaps do, and we were trying to fit in. The thing is, we never find any of the women we shout at attractive – no offense,” he added, glancing nervously at Sophie, who raised her eyebrows, wondering what he was going on about, “— because, well, because... because...”

“We’re gay,” Kevin said, putting his arm around Darren’s shoulders.

“Really?” She said.

“Yes, really. We’ve been together for three years now.”

As much as she wanted to hate the pair of them, Sophie couldn’t help but smile. It certainly explained why Kevin was so worried about Darren running off, and the way they hugged without going all ‘no homo’ like so many of her male friends. She thought about everything Darren and Kevin had said (and thought about Darren crying, because she knew that, unlike women, men only tended to cry when they were really upset), and it all seemed to make sense.

“I see,” she said slowly.

Darren glanced at her anxiously, looking like he might burst into tears if she said something mean to him.

“As an extra to our apology,” Kevin said, reaching into his back pocket, and holding out an envelope. “Would you like these? They’re tickets to see _Hamlet_ at the Globe Theatre. We wanted to go ourselves, but we would prefer it if you had them.”

“Really?” She said, wondering if they were just winding her up.

“Yes, really,” Kevin said. “Take a look at the tickets.”

Sophie took the envelope and took the tickets out. What she saw were two genuine tickets for the Globe Theatre. She looked up at them, amazed.

“Bloody hell, these are so hard to get. They must’ve cost a fortune. Thank you!” She said, grinning at the two men. “And you really are sorry?”

They both nodded vigorously.

“Definitely.”

“Absolutely.”

“Well, then, I accept your apology.”

They both beamed, and Darren clapped his hands together.

“Thank you, madam,” Kevin said delightedly.

“Thank you so much, madam,” Darren cried, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, tears in his eyes.

“Thanks for the tickets,” Sophie said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kevin said.

“See you around,” Darren added, still grinning tearfully.

And then Sophie walked away, wondering what the hell had just happened.


End file.
